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EPISD gears up to return to facilities plan

Eastwood High School students crowd the hallways between classes in November 2015. After passage of the YISD bond, most of the school will be demolished and rebuilt as a multilevel school.(Photo: MARK LAMBIE/EL PASO TIMES FILE)Buy Photo

Now that the Ysleta Independent School District has passed a $430.5 million bond issue, its neighboring district facing similar challenges is preparing to review its own facilities and looking at YISD for tips.

The El Paso Independent School District commissioned a district-wide report on school buildings, needed maintenance and demographics last year, finding several schools are well below capacity and in need of repairs as student enrollment falls, buildings age and state funds are cut.

A consultant estimated the EPISD would need three bond issues totaling $1 billion over the next six years to fund the recommended school closures, consolidations, renovations and construction.

The state-appointed Board of Managers held off on making a decision on the facilities modernization plan this spring, and now the elected Board of Trustees are preparing to take up the issue.

At their next meeting Nov. 17, the trustees will discuss forming a Citizens Advisory Committee to review the facilities proposal administrators presented in April, board President Dori Fenenbock said. The proposal included closing 14 schools, relocating students to rebuilt schools and creating six prekindergarten through eighth-grade campuses.

Having a committee of community members review the plan takes a cue from the YISD’s November bond effort.

“There was a shift in Ysleta from a top-down approach to a bottom-up approach, which is what EPISD really intended with the facilities planning committee that I was on a year ago, but I think we didn’t execute it well,” Fenenbock said.

When the EPISD began its facilities review process in fall 2014, a group of community members gave input on the facilities plan but administrators developed the final proposal.

The YISD bond effort was similarly top-down in May when Superintendent Xavier De La Torre and his staff drafted the list of projects the bond would fund. Voters turned down that first $451.5 million bond.

On the second go-around, the YISD formed a Bond Advisory Committee made of 73 community members. The committee developed the final project list the bond would fund, pairing it down to a $430.5 million measure. Voters approved that second bond Tuesday.

The largest project the bond will fund is $93 million in renovations to Eastwood High School. Other big projects include closing Ranchland Hills and Hillcrest middle schools and replacing them with a Bel Air Middle School, consolidating Camino Real and Valley View middle schools and Mission Valley Elementary School into a new Del Valle Middle/Mission Valley Elementary and closing Cadwallader Elementary School and relocating students to Thomas Manor Elementary School. The bond would also finance several other renovation projects and technology, athletics and safety upgrades.

EPISD officials aren’t yet proposing a bond measure, but any plan to renovate or build schools would require one. The state Legislature funds school’s daily operations, not major construction projects.

The EPISD will likely hire the consultant the YISD brought in to facilitate its bond committee meetings, TM Strategy & Design Group president Michelle Hughes, to guide the EPISD Citizens Advisory Committee, Fenenbock said.

The Citizens Advisory Committee will have about 75 members and will design “the right plan for our district,” she said.

The EPISD’s original facilities plan didn’t take into account bus routes or neighborhoods where most students walk to school, EPISD Superintendent Juan Cabrera said. This time, with the community committee’s input, it will.

“This has to be ground-up,” Fenenbock said. “It has to be community driven. The community understands the schools, understands the challenges, understands the need. Instead of us, the administration or the board, presuming that we can make these decisions for the whole district, we need to rely on parents and stakeholders within the community.”

If the committee’s recommendations require a bond, it would likely be held in November 2016, EPISD officials said.

Efforts to revitalize the city’s two older districts coincide with the overall work to reinvigorate El Paso, including $1.3 billion in transportation, streets and quality of life projects in recent years.

Quality education is a big part of that larger vision for the city, Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Richard Dayoub said.

YISD is “moving forward with the initiative that was essential for the district to continue to provide a quality education for the students – that aspect of that does dovetail quite nicely with the community’s overall strategic plan for growing, improving the quality of life and helping the community become an attractive place for businesses to consider relocating to and growing,” Dayoub said. “All these things tie together and support one another.”

Fenenbock said the YISD’s successful bond effort could help ease the path for any future bond the EPISD proposes.

Most bonds put forward in El Paso have funded new schools in growing school districts. The YISD’s $430.5 million measure, however, will finance school closures, consolidations, construction and renovations. Any EPISD bond would likely fund similar efforts.

The passage of the YISD bond is “a good indicator that the community’s open to understanding the challenges, and the community will show support when they understand,” Fenenbock said.

Communicating that need will be difficult, however, she said.

EPISD executive director of community engagement Melissa Martinez said the YISD did a good job in showing community members the repairs its schools need ahead of the second bond try. It also helped accustom El Pasoans to the needs the city’s older districts are facing, Martinez said.

“They did pave the way for us in getting that initial legwork out,” she said. “The community has heard it – twice they’ve heard it – the need. I think that definitely could help us in the future.”

Cabrera agreed.

“My hope is that all boats rise,” he said. “If there’s that sentiment in the community … we’re hoping we can tap into it too.”

YISD Superintendent Xavier De La Torre offered himself and his staff to help EPISD or any other school district with future bond issues.

"We've learned a lot — especially when you do it back to back," De La Torre said. "I think that Superintendent Cabrera is quite capable of delivering a compelling message that could ultimately secure the support of his community."

Cabrera said no facilities discussions have occurred since April – nothing has been going on behind the scenes while the new trustees focused on approving a budget and gaining their footing after they took office in May.

Now it’s time to re-examine facilities, Fenenbock said.

“People need to know what our direction is sooner rather than later,” she said. “We’re ready to take this on.”

Monica Gutierrez, left, and Antoinette Hidalgo work on a project in their marketing class at Eastwood High School in this undated file photo. Tech giant Microsoft announced a partnership program for four El Paso schools that would place experienced volunteers in computer science classrooms.(Photo: MARK LAMBIE/EL PASO TIMES FILE)